Even after both bombs, there was an attempted coup by the military commanders to overthrow the Emperor and continue the war against the Americans. Estimates of a convention invasion put casualty figures in the millions, and you can look to Okinawa to see what happens when the Americans successfully take a civilian area (130,000+ dead, largely from suicides.). Japan was training children, boys and girls, to fight the Americans with bamboo spears, to roll under tanks with explosives strapped to themselves, and so forth.Originally Posted by bbomber72000
If you want to imagine an occupied Japan, think of Iraq, except with the entire population having the dedication to removing the occupiers and moreover having the direct mandate of their God, essentially.
The bombs were horrible, but they were necessary. Even after Hiroshima their failure to surrender showed the strength of their will.
And to be fair, the effects of nuclear explosions were not known to scientists at the time. When reports of radiation sickness came in, many experts believed it to be Japanese fabrication: after tests by the US soldiers were sent into the nuked zones to see how fast they could be taken. If these events had not occurred, it's possible nukes would have been brought to bear much more readily in later conflicts, when they existed in greater numbers and had higher yields.
